~ Seasonal fragrance and flavour from my country kitchens in England and France....celebrating local seasonal produce with traditional feasts and festivals, culinary notes, reviews, recipes and musings from home and abroad....whilst preparing family food with flair ~

Slow Cooking with the Ginger Pig!

Pulled Pork with a Spicy Rub (Slow Cooker/Crock Pot) Recipe

Today’s post is all about spice, comfort food and a new cookbook…..it’s a recipe that I have fallen in love with and that will be a frequent visitor to my kitchen, it’s easy to prepare and cook and is quite spicy too, it’s Pulled Pork in a Spicy Rub. The original recipe was taken from the amazing book Ginger Pig – Farmhouse Cook Book – and that was sent to me for review last year; I have used the book many times since I received it, and you will be seeing more recipes on Lavender and Lovage over the next few months, recipes such as Bag-Poached (Sous-Vide Poached) Bresse Chicken with Madeira Sauce, Wensleydale & Onion Tart, Sausage Rolls with Stilton, Baked Eggs with Wild Garlic and a BIG favourite of ours, Cheese & Rosemary Wafers. The key to this recipe’s success is simple – good quality free-range British pork, if you can get it, and a delectable spicy rub made with all of my favourite herbs, seasonings and spices.

Spicy Rub Ingredients

The original recipe suggests cooking this pork dish in a conventional oven, long and slow……but, I am a BIG fan of long slow cooking in my slow cooker/crock pot when I am super busy, as I have been lately, so I decided to cook mine in the slow cooker for 8 hours, with amazingly successful results! The meat was meltingly tender and not dry and the whole pork joint was infused with wonderful spices with the most amazing aroma, which tantalised our taste buds as it cooked throughput the day. I decided to serve this tender pork join with some mini baguette bread rolls and an assortment of pickles – pickled red cabbage, gherkins, dill pickles, mustard, sliced onions and sauerkraut, and it was a delectable and comforting meal.

This recipe was a randomly picked recipe for Dom’s latest Random Recipe challenge over at Belleau Kitchen – this month we were asked to pick something from a NEW cookbook that we may have had as a Christmas gift, as I received NO new cookbooks this Christmas, I randomly picked a book from all my new books that had been sent to me for review last year and the Ginger Pig came up! As the run includes paprika in it, this recipe also qualifies for Vanesther’s Spice Trail challenge, as the spice for January is Paprika! Do try this recipe, it is a recipe for all seasons and I can see this being the perfect recipe for a BIG summer get-together, as part of a barbecue or a picnic, as well as being served for a mid-week “help yourself” meal too. It’s also perfect for the freezer, as the quantities were rather too much for us, so I popped the rest into the freezer for future enjoyment.

Pulled Pork with a Spicy Rub

That’s it for today, see you soon with more tasty recipes and culinary news! Karen

A tender and spicy pulled pork recipe that is easy to prepare and cook, as well as being perfect for large gatherings. Just serve the pulled pork with crusty bread or bread buns, with salad, pickles and even some sauerkraut, which is delicious with this recipe. Heat up the spicy marinade and cooking juices to serve, which are delicious poured over the pulled pork sandwiches.

Note

A tender and spicy pulled pork recipe that is easy to prepare and cook, as well as being perfect for large gatherings. Just serve the pulled pork with crusty bread or bread buns, with salad, pickles, mustard and even some sauerkraut, which is delicious with this recipe. Heat up the spicy marinade and cooking juices to serve, which are delicious poured over the pulled pork sandwiches. This recipe was adapted from a recipe in the Ginger Pig Farmhouse Cook Book.

Directions

Step 1

Put all of the dry spicy rub ingredients into a bowl and mix well, before adding the red wine vinegar and making a paste.

Step 2

Place the pork into a large bowl and rub the paste all over it, turning it over to make sure it is covered completely in the rub.

Step 3

Cover and leave to marinade overnight or for at least 12 hours in a cool place, such as the fridge. Make sure you take it out regularly to "baste" the pork with the rub as it liquefies.

Step 4

Turn the slow-cooker (crockpot) in to high just before you want to cook the pulled pork.

Step 5

Put the pork and all of the rub marinade into the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours, before turning the setting down to low and cooking for a further 2 to 4 hours. Some slow cookers have an Auto setting, which automatically does this for you, and you can leave the pork cooking on auto for up to 8 hours.

Step 6

When the pork is cooked, take it out and place it on a plate, cover loosely with foil. Pour the juices into a jug and allow to cool before skimming off the fat. Reheat the juices to serve, allowing people to pour the juices over their pork.

Step 7

To serve, shred the pork with two forks and serve it with crusty bread or bread buns, with salad, dill pickles, sliced onions, pickled red cabbage and sauerkraut.

Step 8

For conventional ovens, pre-heat oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and cook the pork in a baking tray/tin, covered with foil for 5 hours, before turning the oven up to 170C/325F/Gas 3, taking the foil off and cooking for a further 20 to 30 minutes. Serve as above.

oh my lordy lord Karen this is amazing… it takes my breath away. I am SO bloody hungry and have a stonking hangover and I quite frankly need a huge chunk of this on a plate in front of me right now!… it just looks so beautiful and so unctuous… I know it’s quite an investment to make a joint like this so I fully appreciate what you’ve done… you must have been feasting for days. Thanks so much for joining in random recipes this month, it’s always lovely to have you as part of the gang xx

Thanks Dom! I must admit I was a bit daunted when the page fell open and I saw the recipes called for 1.8 to 2.2 kgs of pork, as that is an awful lot of meat! But, we have had two lovely meals and the rest is in the freezer for an easy to fix future supper dish!

Karen, that is amazingly similar to our Eastern North Carolina BBQ. We usually slow roast whole hogs over wood using a spiced vinegar basting sauce. It is then chopped or pulled and served with more sauce as an entree or on a sandwich which has creamy mayonnaise based cole slaw as an accompaniment. Yours looks delicious!

I LOVE this kind of thing Jewel! How amazing that this recipe is so similar to your North Carolina BBQ pork recipe, that is just fascinating! Also love the idea of a creamy coleslaw as an accompaniment too! Thanks for popping by to comment! Karen

Great recipe! That looks so yummy. I had a go on pulled pork as well lately. Apart from a few ingredients I had a similar rub. Next time, though, I need to make sure to have visitors for that.
When you mentioned all those dishes from the Ginger Pig cookbook I already started salivating …

I love pulled pork and this version with the spicy rub looks brilliant. I have the Ginger Pig Farmhouse cookbook too, love it, but haven’t tried this recipe. Will do now, especially as we still have a shoulder of pork in the freezer.

Why, oh why did I look at this post as I wait for my own supper to cook? My stomach is growling so badly now. This looks absolutely divine. Thank you so much for sharing Karen in this month’s Spice Trail challenge – a perfect entry.

I don’t eat pork but I would use the spicy rub for pulled chicken! Looks amazing, I just need to by my first slow cooker. Is using slow cooker better than cooking on the electric cooker when it comes to electric bills?

Not the best post to read when you’re starving hungry, the pics are making my ravenous! Gorgeous pics and recipe as ever. And would you believe I still don’t own a slow cooker, but that really must change especially with glorious recipes like this. And I’ve heard from so many people now it makes the best pulled pork, one of my favourite ever things. Off to have a look on Amazon now…any recommendations?

Have recently fallen back in love with my slow cooker. I go through phases of using it and I am always glad when it comes down from the shelf! The recipe sounds perfect for it. Will be sure to try this, this weekend!

Trackbacks

[…] You have no idea of what your asking of me… there’s simply too much, but I’ll give it a try. Even though it’s way to early for this recipe now, I think a recipe for Elderflower cordial will be perfect in june while visiting FBC when the Elderflowers should be in bloom. For a real warm, nice and wintery treat, check this recipe for slow cooked pulled pork. […]

Meet Karen

Bienvenue! I'm Karen; it’s lovely to see you here. I share my time between beautiful North Yorkshire and SW France. I am a freelance writer and recipe developer with a passion for art, travel, books, photography, seasonal food and especially cheese! Please do get in contact with me if you have any questions about my work or commissioning me. Read More…